Scrubbing bath towel

ABSTRACT

A bath towel suitable for scrubbing and cleaning the human body made of weftwisely creped fabric comprising thermoplastic crimped multifilament yarn as a weft and thermoplastic filament yarn as a warp, and method of making the same comprising a treatment in a hot water bath in which the fabric of the towel is given agitation through the hot water by a means to agitate.

United States Patent [72] Inventor Haruo Kamei l-161 Sakasai Edogawaku, Tokyo, Japan [21] Appl. No. 818,213 [22] Filed Apr. 22, 1969 [45] Patented Sept. 14, 1971 [54] SCRUBBING BATH TOWEL 2 Claims, 3 Drawing Figs.

[521 11.8. CI 139/420, 139/396, 28/76 51 Int. Cl 130. 5 15/00, to .m o 1,27/0s 99 u [50] Field 01 Search 139/396, 392, 420, 426, 383; 28/72, 72 FT, 76, 76 E [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,574,029 11/1951 Foster 28/76 2,597,580 5/1952 Gluck 139/396 X 2,740,183 4/1956 Corbiere 28/72 Primary Examiner-James Kee Chi Altorney-Thomson & Mrose ABSTRACT: A bath towel suitable for scrubbing and cleaning the human body made of weftwisely creped fabric comprising thermoplastic crimped multifilament yarn as a weft and thermoplastic filament yarn as a warp, and method of making the same comprising a treatment in a hot water bath in which the fabric of the towel is given agitation through the hot water by a means to agitate.

PATENTEI] SEPMIS?! 3604.474

INVENTOR Ko/mm. BY

W ,Wnoez Eamon ATTORNEY:

SCRUBBING BATH TOWEL This invention relates to a bath towel suitable for scrubbing and cleaning the human body and more particularly to a fabric containing weft yarn composed of thermoplastic crimped multifilaments and a method of producing the same.

Various types of article to scrub and clean the human body in the bath have previously been known. The most widely used one is the bath towel usually made of pile fabrics. The bath towel, customarily composed of cotton yarns, is found allowable for the purpose of wet absorption. But it has not been deemedadequate to the scrubbing function essential to cleaning and washing. Although the soap used with the bath towel has cleaning function, it unwillingly exhibits a tendency to serve as lubricant in scrubbing motion so that the scrubbing function inherently possessed by itself decreases.

Accordingly, the towel is handled by the bather in manner such that it is twisted in rope form for the purpose of obtaining stiff texture for scrubbing and cleaning the bathers own back or handled in manner such that the towel is grasped in the bathers hand to form a conventional spongelike shape in the hand.

From such manner in using the towel, it is observed that the insufficiency of the scrubbing I power is now a problem precluding it from a wider application in commercial field for which solution is demanded. It might be agreed by any person that any article other than the bath towel such as some artificial sponge, or brush is found capable of having desired scrubbing function by election of suitable conventional manufacturing method. Accordingly, so far as the scrubbing power is concerned, any desired scrubbing power mightv easily be attained by improvement of those articles other than the towel.

But such articles have no convertibility of form in using either for the back or for the other portions of the human body as the towel has. Furthermore, an additional and unwieldy attendant such as cord or handle is required to be attached to them.

It is most important object ofthe present invention to provide a bath towel which produces an unusual effect in scrubbing and cleaning the human 'body.

Another object of the invention is to provide a fabric composed of thermoplastic crimped multifilament yarn as a weft so that the crepe may appear to weftwise direction.

With these objects in view, the bath towel of the present invention comprises wefts of thermoplastic crimped multifilament yarns of from 100 to 400 denier and warps of thermoplastic filament yarn of from 10 to denier, said wefts having deep crepe produced by treating with hot water under agitation.

The forgoing and other objects will be manifest from the following specification in conjunction with the drawing in which;

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a multifilament crimped yarn employed in this invention;

FIG. 2 is a broken, perspective and magnificated'view of a fabric utilizing the multifilament crimped yarn in a plain weave;-

FIG. 3 is a similar showing of a fabric having a satinweave. Throughout the Figures, similar numerals refer to similar parts of the fabric.

As for the textile fibers of the weft yarn employed in the constructionof the towel, thermoplastic multifilament fibers available in crimped form may be used. Such fibers may include the thermoplastic fibers polyamid filament, polyethylene terephthalate filament, polyvinyl chloride filament, and etc. The operation such as stuffer box, knitting and unraveling, or false twist may be applied.

As for the textile fibers of the warp, thermoplastic filaments may be also used, though the fineness of the warp yarn is limited in a total denier less than 30. The fineness of the weft yarn is preferably limited in-a total denierin the range of from about 100 to 400, 10 to 30 filaments. It is noted that in the resultant fabric there exists a large amount of difference of denier between the weft and warp. This contributes to produce theicrepe on the fabric in the subsequent treatment in a hot water bath under additional agitationrAnytype of means to give the fabrics agitation may be applied such as water jetting, steam jetting, or any other mechanical. agitater. It is understood that the agitation serves to cause the weft yarn to be free from restraint of weaving and'recovers its originally set crimp. This results in contraction of the weft and crepe therefore may be produced solely onto the weft. In the treatment the water can be material assistance by introducing the agitation uniformly into the fabrics, while the large amount of difference of fineness between the warp and weft is sufficient to develop creping force to overcome any obstruction which may have been made by the warp duringthe periodof the treatment. In the bath the temperatureis chosen less than about C., though the temperature is not under so severe limitation as would likely to be met during the heat setting of the conventional crimping process.

The present invention may be practiced either in plain or satin weave. The resultant woven fabrics is made up in the conventional towel form by cutting it at commercially allowable length.

The phenomenon in which the crepe is weftwisely produced in the fabric of the present invention, is apparent to the eye under magnification. When the fabric is practically used as a bath towel, particularly for the'purposeof cleaning-and scrubbing the bathers back by bathe: in person, it is usually grasped at both ends in the bathers hands in rope form and. reciprocated in close contact with bathers back. It is noted that in the scrubbing motionthe towel reciprocates inwarp wise direction so that the warp bears entire stretching load and the crepe serves as a scrubbing member. The fact that the direction of the reciprocation is perpendicular to weftwise direction is, in effect, the same as the fact that all crepes on the surface of the fabrics are perpendicular to the reciprocation direction. By this, the present invention has 'unusual' characteristics as a bath towel and higher scrubbing power is effected. It should be noted that in order to maintain the weaving point of the fabrics at regular location in the weaving construction crimped filament is preferred as the warp yarn rather than the uncrimped filament. The crimp of the warp yarn tends to restrain its shift with respect to the weft. It is found that if the cotton staple yarn is woven alternately with another thermoplastic yarn, the resultant fabric has somewhat greater wet absorbing function. Even though crimped filament yarn is used as a warp of the fabric of the present invention, the resultant fabric has substantially nonstretch characteristics in the warp direction.

I have found that this results by virtue-of the crimp interchange properties of woven fabrics. By the term.the virtue of crimp interchange properties of woven fabrics l mean that thefabrics in the warp direction is efiected, though'certain amount of warp crimp suitable for preventing the shifting of the weaving point remains. This is an important featureof the present invention.

Referring to the drawing, in more detail the weft yarngenerally indicated by a reference character 1 is composed of 1 multifilaments as may be seen at the cut ends 2. Individual fila ments are indicated at 3 with each filament crimped in wave or crepe 4. The wave of the weft yarn depicted in FIG. 1 may be produced by any one of the operations by which the wave is originally produced as hereinabove described. In order that the construction of the yarn may be better understood, a comparatively smaller number of filaments is illustrated in FIG. 1 than the practical number.

A fabric with a plain weave as illustrated in FIG. 2 may be prepared from the filament yarn 1 by weaving it with the warp yarn 5. As may be seen in FIG. 2 each individual crepe on the weft yarn exhibits a tendency to be arranged in a series nearly in parallel with warpwise direction. It is believed that when the shed is closed subsequent to the picking motion of the conventional loom not illustrated, individual strands of weft yarn are held under restraint by interlacing of warp and weft so that each crepe of the weft yarn is not free to randomly locate.

A fabric illustrated in FIG. 3 is weaved in 2/2 satin weave. By the weaving construction similar scrubbing function can be obtained as that of example 1. Although the unusual characteristics of the present invention has been principally described when it is used for scrubbing and cleaning the bathers back, the characteristic in the other situation may be apparent without further description to those who are skilled in the art.

The following nonlimitative examples indicate specifically how the invention may be practiced in the various embodiments.

EXAMPLE 1 Weft yarn of 300 denier, l5 filament nylon 6, is knitted by circular knitting machine, set in a steam box for 40 minutes at 120 C., the yarn is then unraveled and is then woven, 65 picks per inch, into a warp of 190 ends per inch of 20 denier, nylon 6. The woven fabric is then immersed in a hot water bath for 30 minutes at 90 C. During the period of immersion, agitation is given to the fabric by a washer. After drying, the fabric is found completely uniformly and weftwisely creped, and the width of 55 cm. at the stage of weaving is shrunk to finished width 33 cm. After cutting the resultant fabric into a length conventional in the commercial field, the fabric was applied in actual and experimental use for scrubbing and cleaning the human body. The stiff crepe resulting from the practice of the present invention, was found effective to scrub and clean the human body and it was found that the muscular labor required for scrubbing the human body by the conventional terry towel is distinctly alleviated.

EXAMPLE 2 Weft yarn of 225 denier, l5 filament, polyethylene terephthalate is twisted with S or Z twist of 2,300 turns per meter. After steaming for 40 minutes at 120 C. wet bulb temperature, the treated yarn is then untwisted to final zero twist. The resultant yarn found to have both high bulk and retractive force, is then woven as the weft in 2/2 satin weave by picking both S and Z twisted yarn alternately, 80 picks per inch, using a warp yarn of denier monofilament nylon 6, 170 ends per inch, width at loom 60 cm. The woven fabric is then boiled off, for 40 minutes, producing finished fabric having uniform and deep crepe. After the treatment, the fabric had considerable stretch in the weft direction, but comparatively slight stretch in the warp direction. The fabric was shrunk in its finished width 33 inches from the width before the treatment.

EXAMPLE 3 Weft yarn of 300 denier, l5 filament nylon 6 filament yarn and cotton staple yarn 20 S are alternately woven 3 picks the nylon 6 and 1 pick the cotton yarn, 65 picks per inch, using as a warp the same yarn as that of Example 1. The woven fabric thereafter is given the same treatment as that of the Example 1. The wet absorption somewhat increased than that of Example 1.

By an actual and experimental use of the fabric to which the present invention is applied, it was indicated that the important feature of the invention which heretofore demanded are as follows;

i. By the use of the fabric for scrubbing and cleaning, the

proportion of foaming soap relative to the rate of nonfoaming soap, highly increased. Complex and fine curved surface of the human body such as the surface of wrinkles or pore can fitly be scrubbed and dirt on that portion can be effectively removed by the scrubbing action of the higher stiff crepe of the fabric.

3. The stiffness of the crepe can be conveniently determined by changing the textile fiber used, or crimping process practiced in producing the weft yarn.

4. When the fabric is used for scrubbing the skin of the human body, this raises satisfactory feeling or touch to the bather. The durability is surprisingly higher than that of the conventional towel.

5. In using the bath towel in manner such that the towel grasped at both ends in bathers hands in rope form is reciprocated in close contact with the bathers back, substantially no elongation in the warp direction was exhibited.

6. The muscular labor necessary to reciprocate the towel in close contact with the human body can be distinctly alleviated in comparison with the conventional terry cotton towel, due to the higher scrubbing function.

7. Because of attainable higher rate of foaming soap, any

amount of nonfoaming soap does not remain on the surface of the human body in cohesive state after rinsing.

The present invention is capable of minor variation in accordance with knowledge of the art, and the creping process can be practiced concurrently with a dyeing operation and having thus described my invention, that which is claimed:

1. A scrubbing bath towel of woven fabric comprising wefts composed entirely of thermoplastic crimped and deeply creped multifilament yarn of from to 400 denier, and warps of thermoplastic filament yarn of from 10 to 30 denier so that the fabric is stretchable in the weft direction and sub stantially nonstretchable in the warp direction.

2. A bath towel as described in claim 1, the denier of the warp filaments being in the order of one-tenth that of the weft filaments. 

2. A bath towel as described in claim 1, the denier of the warp filaments being in the order of one-tenth that of the weft filaments. 